In recent years, a flat panel display device is developed briskly. Especially, the liquid crystal display device gets a lot of attention from advantages, such as light weight, thin shape, and low power consumption. In an active matrix type liquid crystal display device equipped with a switching element in each pixel, a structure using lateral electric field, such as IPS (In-Plane Switching) mode and FFS (Fringe Field Switching) mode, attracts attention.
The liquid crystal display device using the lateral electric field mode is equipped with pixel electrodes and a common electrode formed in an array substrate, respectively. Liquid crystal molecules are switched by the lateral electric field substantially in parallel with the principal surface of the array substrate.
On the other hand, another technique is also proposed, in which the liquid crystal molecules are switched using the lateral electric field or an oblique electric field between the pixel electrode formed in the array substrate and the common electrode formed in a counter substrate. As one example, a portion of the pixel electrode covers a gate line and shields the electric field from the gate line.